Total Beginnger!

Hi there,

I live in Kent and we have been in our house for nearly 7 months now. We have a pretty small garden which is north facing. At the moment we only have green shrubs so I'd like to inject some colour into it!

We have a 6 month old daughter so need plants that are tough and won't hurt her:D

Where on earth do I start?!:confused::confused: we don't have any borders but have recently bought 3 pots (small, med, lrge) which I'd like to plant something in but no idea what.

Also our kitchen looks out onto our garage which I'd like to train something to grow up using perhaps trellis??

If it's easier for me to post some photos that's no problem, any help is greatly appreciated. I love flowers but having lived in a flat before and then at my parents I'm a complete novice:thumb:

x

 

Hi Roz, welcome to Nutters Corner. Always easier if you post photos through Photobucket. I always tell people to find plants they like and then ask for advice on growing. Then everyone else yells 'NO NO' and tells you to plant what they like. It works both ways so you can do it either way. I'm sure someone will be on soon to tell you what to plant.

 

Hi Roz, Welcome to GC..

 

Back Garden:











We put lawn feed on nearly 2 weeks ago to try and sort out the grass so apologies for the state of it!!

Will also post some photos of our front garden as need advice there! Thank you for the lovely welcome :o) x

 

Front Garden:











As you can see we have some lovely shrubs in the front garden but need more colour! I like fuschia's, tulips, lily's, rose's - pretty much anything to be honest except for sunflowers!!

I should add they need to be relatively inexpensive plants as on maternity leave currently ha ha!

x

 

Hi Roz and welcome. I thought your garden looked really shady in the first two pictures, then realised they were taken in the dark :D

It does look like a nice garden with lots of potential. You could look for some climbers, to go up the fences and through the shrubs, bushes etc. - if you like clematis you can often get them relatively cheaply - and something that trailed over the walls would look lovely too. Nice to have all those levels to play with!

I'm no expert but FWIW I think John's advice is good. Also you could try wandering around nosing in other people's gardens near yours, and if you see things you like that are doing well in the local soil, climate etc., and can spot the owner, tell them you think it's lovely and ask what it is (if you don't know), if you start with a compliment most people'll tell you. That also works for ideas for landscaping etc. too.

The only other thing to add is that my two grandmothers both lived in Kent (Dartford-ish area) and their gardens were quite dry - if yours is too, it will be much easier to choose things that are happy in dry conditions, they'll do better and be a lot less work! Things I can remember them having that did well were lavender, passion flower (a vigorous and very pretty climber - it can get a bit too enthusiastic!) and magnolia - oh and my dad's mum used to grow great tomatoes in her little greenhouse, and my mum's dad used to grow fantastic veg although I think that was when they used to get a little more rain perhaps. (PS my grandmother couldn't stand sunflowers either for some reason!)

 

Hi roz anything claire suggested I must say I agree with but I might add if you have room veg is good[there is nothing like harvesting and eating your own produce]and it tastes better,also talking of climbers,you might consider honeysuckle[as it is a fast climber and smells great],and lastly welcome to gardeners corner.

 

Thanks so much coub & Claire! Those are great suggestions, will definitely look into that. Like the idea of looking at neighbouring gardens and asking for advice, I'm about 15 mins from Dartford Claire so perhaps we have dry soil too?? Would love to grow some veg although not sure we have the room? I would like a herb patch also, great to teach our daughter all about growing your own produce too!

Have been looking at trellis and not cheap is it!!

Sunflowers are just too big and scary looking to me ha ha!

x

 

Trellis can be on the expensive side but it's worth shopping around, and I bet you could get it in Lidl or Aldi, or maybe in the supermarkets, for less - but you can grow clematis (and probably other climbers I should think) with a large shrub, so it uses the shrub as support (my mum and dad have some growing like this).

Herbs and veg can take up as much or as little room as you want, really, and you can even grow many of them in pots (there are some threads on here about doing this). The only trouble is it's totally addictive and you end up thinking supermarket veg is lousy, and then before you know it you've got an allotment! If you want to have a go at pots, I'd recommend starting off with some cut and come again salad seed because fresh salad is much better-tasting and healthier, and will save you quite a lot of money too if you like to eat salad.

 

Sorry if this sounds dumb but if say we had some trellis on the garage wall to conceal it, would we have to put the plants in pots underneath and train up the wall? It's just we only have concrete there, no border. Told you I'm a complete novice ha ha!

Thanks for that, will have a look in my local supermarket (Asda) as they now have quite a selection of garden stuff. Hopefully the trellis is a little cheaper there.

 

Hi Roz!

If I was you, I'd do the following:

Back garden:

Take up some of the turf by the wall of the house to make a bed. Put up some trellis and grow a couple of climbing roses (smelly ones) up the wall and around the windows of the house. Plant up around them with pretty perennials or annuals, whatever takes your fancy, but do it in big lumps (drifts is probably a nicer word), not just a few of each.

Cut back all that shubbery in the raised beds and put in some smaller shubbery (whatever you like in the garden centre, but I think Hebes are fab) towards the front and something climbing behind it up the fence - I'd go for a climbing hydrangea or a honeysuckle, but that's just a personal opinion. Oh and I'd put loads of bulbs in for spring.

I like your pots. I'd make them a feature, with dramatic feature plants. Maybe a Cordyline in the big one and then some fushias in the other two flanking it.

I can't quite see how wide the steps are but they look quite wide. I'd put a pot (painted terracotta probably) on each step and grow herbs/veg in them. You'd get the smell as you go up and down the steps then.


Is the white building the garage? Climbers in pots would work, but I'd be tempted to paint it a fancy colour (I like light blue in a garden, I don't know why) and put up lots (and I mean lots) of hanging pots and window boxes and fill them with as many plants as I could get my grubby paws on. I'd grow clematis in the fence in front of it.

Do you like the lawn? If you aren't wild about it, and one day have money to burn (!) I think I'd take it up and lay a lovely patterned patio and get a nice set of garden furniture and a load of pots to grow whatever you fancy.

The front garden:

I quite like it as it is. I'd just tidy it up a bit and live with it for a bit and see where you think it needs splashes of colour then maybe plant up pots with pretty flowers and dot them about.

Gosh, sorry, got a bit carried away there.

 

Apparently I am container gardening obsessed today, but I do think it looks nice in a smaller garden.

 

Just a thought with regard to your daughter, Roz, because as she gets older and might start to become inquisitive you might want to be careful about growing anything that might scratch badly, like roses or be poisonous, like foxgloves. If you like fuschias I think you can feel fairly safe with these as the berries left on the plant after the flower has faded are edible..although unpleasant tasting. You can pick them up quite cheaply all over the place and there are lots of varieties, many of them hardy, and it's easy to take cuttings and increase your stock. They can be grown in the soil or in containers. When you get past the beginner stage you could even try training one into a standard.
I stopped growing lilies when I learnt that the pollen can be fatal to cats, but whether it's harmful to liitle people I've no idea!

 

This is the path that runs under the windows of house, giving us side access. So although I'd love to do your suggestion flumpette we wouldn't be able to make a bed:(


This is a tree we have in garden, is it a type of palm tree?:confused:

Sorry to sound so stupid!

The white building is the garage yes and a double one so obviously large and is the first thing you notice when you step into the garden. Which is why I want to make it less 'in your face'. Like the idea for the steps thank you! I agree about the front, we have some lovely plants out there but definitely needs a tidy up and some colour added. We want to keep the lawn what with having a child it's softer when they fall ha ha!